The 2015 Seoul Debates

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2 The 2015 Seoul Debates Lessons Learnt on Anti-Corruption from Korea and Around the World January 2015, Seoul, Republic of Korea Meeting Report

3 Donor partner: This meeting has been possible because of the generous support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea, to the. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this handbook are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations, including UNDP, or their Member States. UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations. 2

4 Table of Contents I. Executive Summary 5 II. Main Takeaways 11 III. Meeting Notes & Session Summary 21 Opening Day (Day 1) 22 Opening Speeches 22 Session 1: High-Level Political Dialogue: Lessons Learnt from Anti- Corruption Institutions Session 2: The International Anti-Corruption Regime and Lessons Learnt From Development Cooperation in Anti-Corruption Session 3: Progresses and Challenges in Anti-Corruption Efforts in Developing Countries Session 4: Innovations in Anti-Corruption 31 Day 1: Closing Remarks 33 Expert Group Meeting (Day 2) 34 Session 1: In-depth Analysis on Anti-Corruption Experiences and Lessons Learnt from Korea: Panel Discussion 34 Session 2: Lessons Learnt in Anti-Corruption Efforts in Developing Countries 38 Session 3: Applying Good Practices for Tackling Corruption in Developing Countries: Challenges and Recommendations Session 4: Working Group Discussions for Designing a Roadmap on Anti- Corruption Development Solutions Day 2: Closing Remarks 43 IV. Feedback from Participants 45 3

5 V. Annexes Concept Note & Programme Participant List 63 4

6 Executive Summary 5

7 Executive Summary Poor governance and entrenched systems of corruption remain a major challenge for human development. Globally the cost of corruption equals more than 5 per cent of global GDP. Almost $1 trillion is paid in bribes each year according to the World Bank. Mr. Haoliang Xu, Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Director of UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and Pacific It is important to prevent corruption practices by determining environments and factors that cause corruption and addressing them in advance instead of detecting the cases afterwards. Ms. Jin-Young Kwak, Vice-Chairperson of Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission of Korea From our own experiences, Korea understands the twists and turns as well as the practical realities in fighting corruption. As such, we possess unique know-how and seasoned insights to share with developing countries. H.E. Shin Dong-ik, Deputy Foreign Minister for Multilateral & Global Affairs of Korea, held on January 2015 in Seoul, Republic of Korea, with some 80 participants from Korea and other countries around the world, provided a forum to identify innovative practices and consolidate lessons learnt in tackling corruption. The 2015 Seoul Debates meeting was organized by (USPC), in partnership with the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission of Korea (ACRC), with technical support from UNDP Global Anti-Corruption Initiative (GAIN), the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub for Asia and the Pacific and the UNDP Global Centre for Public Service Excellence in Singapore (GCPSE). Government partners, UNDP practitioners, civil society experts and researchers had lively and candid discussions on policies, strategies and institutional arrangements to prevent corruption in the public sector using Korea s experience as well as experiences from several countries around the world as references. The meeting also gave Korean and international experts a networking opportunity to build partnerships for future collaboration. was organized as part of USPC s Development Solutions Partnership (DSP) on anti-corruption. This new approach for USPC aims to connect Korea with the wider UNDP network as a knowledge broker and facilitator, enhancing the Korea-UNDP partnership on strategic development issues. The DSP on anti-corruption is designed to facilitate knowledgesharing and South-South/triangular cooperation for more effective development cooperation, utilizing Korea s experiences and innovative tools. From our own experiences, we understand the twists and turns as well as the practical realities in fighting corruption, said H.E. Shin Dong-ik, Deputy Foreign Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs of Korea in his congratulatory remarks. As such, we possess unique know-how and seasoned insights to share with developing countries, he added, mentioning that Korea wished to share the country s lessons learnt over the past 50 years with other countries. 6

8 Mr. Haoliang Xu, Assistant Secretary General of the UN and Director of the Regional Bureau for Asia and Pacific of UNDP, echoed this view: I believe that putting in perspective Korea s experience with other countries will be a great occasion to draw lessons on how anti-corruption can be promoted as part of a wider development agenda, he said. The main corruption challenges that Korea faced during its rapid development and the ways of overcoming them were put up for discussion by practitioners and academics as well as experts from a number of Korean institutions, such as the Korea Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC), the Supreme Prosecutors Office, the Board of Audit, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the Korea Institute for Public Administration and Transparency International Korea. Detailing Korea s experience in fighting corruption, Ms. Jin-Young Kwak, Vice Chair of ACRC, highlighted the importance of prevention: In order to improve the effectiveness of anticorruption policy, it is important to prevent corruption practices by determining environments and factors that cause corruption and addressing them in advance instead of detecting the cases afterwards. She explained how strong will from politicians and the public had prompted the introduction of a range of legal and policy measures such as integrity assessments to evaluate corruption levels in public services, laws to protect whistle-blowers as well as bills to target nepotism and solicitation practices, and fraud in public finances. International participants found Korea s case particularly interesting because of its history of rapid economic and social development despite having to endure manifold governance challenges including corruption. Anti-corruption tools developed in Korea also attracted attention. Besides ACRC s integrity assessment, which is conducted by over 600 public organizations in Korea and is also being applied in several countries including Bhutan, this was also the case of the electronic subcontract payment system for transparent public infrastructure projects of the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Participants in the 2015 Seoul Debates also shared lessons and examples from other countries Bhutan, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam as well as perspectives of various international organizations including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), as well as international civil society organizations such as Transparency International and Global Integrity. Mr. Ang Seow Lian, Deputy Director of Singapore s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) emphasized that corruption can compromise anyone, even in advanced economies such as Singapore today. He also shared how, after gaining independence in 1964, his country started its battle against corruption as a necessary means to attract investment for national survival. The political leaders thought that we could not survive if we still had corruption among us, so political will is one of the key factors that led to our success, he noted. He also stressed the importance of strong anti-corruption systems with independent enforcement agencies, in order to maintain the political will across generations. Participants also noted the increasing opportunities to strengthen country level anti-corruption efforts through various international mechanisms and networks for utilization by practitioners. The importance of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) was stressed as a tool for opening up the space for dialogue at the national level to build country-level commitment and capacity to fight corruption, also helped by the review mechanism that was put in place in The need for striking an appropriate balance between prosecution and prevention was also highlighted. Practitioners noted that anti-corruption strategies are most effective when both prevention and prosecution are well-incorporated and balanced in a country s anti-corruption efforts. In addition, political independence in prosecution, institutionalised coordination among 7

9 all relevant public institutions, as well as adequate and predictable budget allocation for anticorruption agencies were stressed as key. Discussions also affirmed the importance of understanding the political economy of corruption, e.g. the multi-dimensional nature of corruption and its functionality in the broader governance environment. Understanding the actual function of corruption and patronage, regarding a country s drivers of conflict of interest, makes it possible to formulate appropriate steps to replace that function with something productive, rather than replacing one form of corruption with another. It was also stressed that anti-corruption measures need to be mainstreamed, institutionalized and owned by society in total, rather than seen as the responsibility of an anti-corruption institution only. The Chairperson of the Anti-Corruption Commission of Bhutan, Ms. Neten Zangmo, stressed that other bodies must have anti-corruption as part of their agenda and specifically suggested that such mainstreaming be considered for development cooperation. She also pointed to the post-2015 development agenda and underscored that governance would be key for achieving the sustainable development goals. Working with non-traditional actors such as the private sector and political partners was also flagged as important for tackling corruption. UNDP s Governance Team Leader in Colombia, Ms. Blanca Cardona, informed the participants of UNDP s work with political parties and presented a newly developed transparency assessment tool for political parties to strengthen their accountability. Developed by the Country Office and Transparency International Colombia, the tool has been tested with Colombia s political parties, and the information gathered will be publicly available. In addition, participants including Ambassador Hong Jae Im from the Korean Chapter of the UN Global Compact underscored the critical role of the private sector as the supply side of corruption, and stressed the importance of supporting the proposed Goal 16 on governance under the post-2015 Sustainable Development agenda, which is being negotiated by UN Member States at the moment. Throughout the 2015 Seoul Debates, participants addressed the question of political will and the need to mobilize and strengthen the political will in the first place, rather than only flagging the importance of political will as a panacea for tackling corruption. Practitioners shared examples of successfully building the public sentiment by increasing citizen awareness for instance through investigative research and presentation of real data that showed the exact magnitude of corruption and compelled the government to take an action. From its conceptual design, the 2015 Seoul Debates deliberately sought to avoid the approach of finding best practices, or ready-made solutions that can be transplanted in other contexts. The assumption was that, owing to different political, socio-economic and legal contexts, there is no universal model of successful anti-corruption policies. While honestly expressing their desire to take practical and immediate solutions home, meeting participants still noted that what works should be analyzed and understood via careful analysis of political, economic, and cultural contexts, given that the effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts depends on many factors unique to the local environment. The conclusion was that exemplary policies and tools need to be referenced and adapted as a best fit for specific contexts. At the same time, participants reaffirmed the usefulness of peer learning from good as well as bad practices, in order to identify what works, what doesn t and why with a holistic perspective. UNDP country office representatives and national participants from developing countries expressed strong interest in follow-up cooperation and more focused knowledge exchange with Korea, particularly with regards to adapting Korea s tools and localizing the lessons learnt to suit 8

10 their own national contexts. thus demonstrated the usefulness as well as the rich potential of the DSP approach and pointed to strategic opportunities for triangular development cooperation, involving Korea, UNDP, and developing countries. The Development Solution Partnerships are surely innovative and promising channels of the UNDP s growing teamwork with Korea. Beyond the Seoul Debates, I hope that they will multiply in number, leading to distinctive, concrete and sustainable results in developing countries with the support of the Korean Government. - Shin, Dong-ik, Deputy Foreign Minister for Multilateral & Global Affairs, Korea 9

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12 Main Takeaways 11

13 Main Takeaways Participants of the 2015 Seoul Debates presented on a wide variety of topics with a diversity of perspectives and views. Yet, key themes and messages were repeated throughout the meeting. Some of these main observations and the discussions that took place around them are briefly summarized below. Participants observed that to effectively tackle corruption it is important to: 1. Analyse and better understand the political economy and cultural context of corruption, and address the multi-dimensional dynamics and functions of corruption in the broader governance environment. The importance of seeking a multi-dimensional understanding of corruption within national contexts, before adopting specific anti-corruption approaches and tools, was stressed by many participants. Understanding better can help to identify the dynamics and societal function of corruption, before intervention strategies for anti-corruption are designed. The function of corruption and patronage in society Ms. Irene Mulyagonja Kakooza, Uganda s Inspector General of Government, and Mr. Richard E. Messick, Consultant on Anti-corruption and Rule of Law, and former Co-Director of the World Bank Law and Justice Thematic Group, stressed the critical importance of understanding the actual function of corruption and patronage as part of a country s drivers of conflict of interest. It was pointed out that such understanding makes it possible to formulate appropriate steps to replace that function with something productive, rather than replacing one form of corruption with another. A careful analysis of the cultural norms and practices in which some forms of corruption are embedded is necessary, particularly in countries with a strong patronage culture, where corruption plays the function of maintaining and creating patron-client strategies. In such cases, strategies to decrease corruption through increasing the salaries of public servants could be counterproductive, as it could actually increase a patron s prestige and responsibility in regards to clients. Similarly, Dr. Park Joonghoon from the Korea Institute for Public Administration (KIPA) shared that Korea s group-orientated culture has caused whistle-blowing to be seen as a betrayal and that Korea s traditions of gift-giving has complicated efforts against bribes and coercion. Global Integrity s Hazel Feigenblatt also highlighted the importance of understanding the broader local context in appropriately assessing corruption. Focusing on one sector or industry which may not be illustrative to the local corruption context may result in inaccurate assessments. And once the data is collected, the local context should also determine how one needs to share, spread and utilize the data. Corruption is a complex governance issue It was also stressed that even where there is reasonably strong evidence of the positive impacts of anti-corruption interventions, further research to understand why certain approaches have been more effective than others need to be done, to clarify what exactly might be useful under what governance conditions. As one delegate observed: Defining policies, drafting laws, prioritizing development strategies and activities, allocating budget, quality service delivery, etc. cannot be separated from governance. Every action undertaken by government institutions or public organizations should be examined under an anti-corruption lens, and governance and anticorruption cannot be divorced from one another. 12

14 Dr. Elizabeth Hart, former Director of the U4 Anti-corruption Resource Centre, and Dr. Max Everest-Phillips, Director of UNDP GCPSE in Singapore, underscored that corruption must be analysed as a complex governance issue, rather than a technical or sectoral problem. They stressed the usefulness of the political economy analysis in helping anti-corruption practitioners choose appropriate anti-corruption approaches and undertake effective development cooperation to fight corruption. In a similar vein, Dr. Everest-Phillips emphasized the broader context of anti-corruption, asserting that the great strength of the 2015 Seoul Debates was anchoring the discussion in the broader thought of public service, the role of politics and political processes. He called for resurrection of a sense of purpose, pride and ethics in the public service, which he lamented had been in a state of constant decline for the last few decades in many parts of the world. He stressed the need to run public service without becoming cynical or jaded but bearing in mind that everyone can be bought. Lastly, emphasizing the importance of governance in addressing today s development challenges such as corruption, Ambassador Hong Jae Im, Secretary General of the UN Global Compact Network Korea, stressed the importance of supporting the proposed Goal 16 on governance under the post-2015 Sustainable Development agenda, which is being negotiated by UN Member States at the moment. 2. Work with partners to adapt and reinvent solutions to ensure a best fit to the local context. In line with the discussion on the importance of contextual and holistic analysis of the political economy of corruption, many highlighted that a certain practice may be best for circumstantial reasons that cannot be replicated elsewhere. Practitioners were therefore advised to avoid the approach of copying and pasting policies and approaches that do not mesh with the realities of their own contexts and instead look to adapt and ensure a best fit for their specific context. Necessary prerequisites for successful solutions For instance, implementing Korea s integrity assessment or e-governance tools for corruption prevention would require not only sufficient government budget but also enabling laws and necessary infrastructure in the destination country; otherwise they would not take root after the trial. Dr. Seongjun Kim from Korea s Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) also noted a number of pre-requisites for an effective participatory audit system: enabling democratic space and legal framework, capable local civil society organizations seeking public interests, institutional capacity of the audit agency to systematically follow up on the citizen complaints and requests, high ethical standards of auditors, development of an integrated one-stop system (both offline and online) to receive and process various types of petitions and complaints, and cooperative relations with local authorities and other public service delivery organizations to troubleshoot and fix problems that arise from the participatory audit. Therefore, developing countries would need to adapt innovative approaches to fit their particular social and cultural conditions. In other words, policies and tools would need to be reinvented, not transplanted, in order to address the particular needs and circumstances of the destination. The usefulness of peer-learning At the same time, participants reaffirmed the usefulness of peer learning and multi-stakeholder discussions to take stock of good as well as bad practices. Successes, challenges and lessons learnt on fighting corruption in other countries need to be studied, and there is a need for more in-depth case studies explaining country contexts, what worked, and exactly how and why. The shared feeling was that a country cannot fight corruption alone, and that it is necessary to partner with one another to expand the knowledge base. 13

15 Participants expressed strong interest in more focused knowledge exchange with Korea, through UNDP as a knowledge broker, so as to localize the innovative practices and lessons learnt back home. This showed that sharing experiences and identifying good practices from other countries must lead to follow-up analysis, dialogue and dynamic collaboration between the parties, in order to provide creative and appropriate development solutions. 3. Institutionalize and mainstream anti-corruption efforts with a holistic and cross-cutting approach to ensure lasting results. Another consistent message from the 2015 Seoul Debates was that anti-corruption measures must be institutionalized, mainstreamed and owned by all of society, rather than be seen as an exclusive responsibility of particular institutions. Anti-corruption measures should instead be integrated throughout the governance system and across all sectors. Mainstreaming engenders greater trust and confidence between the government and citizens, ensures optimal utilization of limited resources, reduces redundancy and fragmentation in policy implementation and thereby improves the impact of anti-corruption efforts. Institutionalization Mr. Ang Seow Lian, Deputy Director of Singapore s Corruption Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), noted that while [a] generation of Singaporeans has been moulded...to treat corruption with disdain, it is important to institutionalize anti-corruption systems with independent enforcement agencies in order to ensure that political will maintains itself throughout successive generations and successive governments. Continued vigilance against anti-corruption is always required, he stressed, as gains made against corruption can be lost through complacence and a shifting local governance environment without appropriate institutionalization, mainstreaming, and social ownership. On effective institutionalization, the critical importance of budgeting was made by Dr. Utis Kaothien of the Thailand National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). He advised policymakers to ensure that anti-corruption institutions receive a fixed annual budget, so that the agency can pursue its mission without political interference; otherwise, anti-corruption efforts would be susceptible to failure, when faced with the backlashes and volatilities created in a highly-sensitive political environment. Mainstreaming Ms. Neten Zangmo, Chairperson of Bhutan s Anti-Corruption Commission, stressed with passion that other institutions must adopt and internalize anti-corruption as part of their agenda, and that mainstreaming efforts should be considered for development cooperation as well. In her view, anti-corruption agencies should ultimately aim to institute anti-corruption attitudes across the governance system so firmly that they make themselves redundant and obsolete in the end. The Director of the, Ms. Anne Marie Sloth Carlsen, pointed out that learning from mainstreaming-efforts in other areas, such as gender and environment, could be used to inspire mainstreaming of anti-corruption. She also pointed to the link between mainstreaming and prevention as they both serve to increase awareness and integrity more broadly. Korea s Integrity Assessment System1 for public organizations (see below), developed by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission of Korea (ACRC), and presented at the 2015 Seoul 1 This survey assessment won first prize in the category of prevention and combating corruption in the 2012 United Nations Public Service Awards. 14

16 Debates by Mr. Sang-Nyon Kim, Director of the Anti-Corruption Survey and Evaluation Division, is an example of an approach that aims at measuring and preventing corruption but at the same time, it can also be seen as a tool for mainstreaming anti-corruption efforts across institutions due to its very wide application and the interest it generates and the way it serves to guide public institutions in anti-corruption strategy development and reform actions. Corruption can compromise anybody Furthermore, participants also discussed the importance of anti-corruption attitudes being owned by society as a whole, with individuals themselves being dedicated to the cause of moral integrity and preventing corruption. Taking the issue right to the personal level, Deputy Director Ang, throughout the meeting repeated the point that corruption can compromise anybody even in his country with high levels of transparency. Ms. Annet Mpabulungi-Wakabi, Governance Team Leader of UNDP Uganda, illustrated this point and how corruption can take on new forms as a society develops, again underlining the need for anti-corruption to be continuously mainstreamed in society. In Uganda, more children than ever go to school and after years of struggling, with local schools now largely receive the funding intended for them that was formerly diverted at various administrative levels. However, as the competition for a good education increases, new habits among parents are emerging, such as bribing teachers and others to ensure good grades for their kids. Ms. Mpabulungi-Wakabi shared how a UNDP initiative in Southern Uganda is aiming at highlighting this practice as a new form of corruption and trying to engage parents, teachers, and communities in addressing the problem. 4. Engage and partner with a broad range of stakeholders, including non-traditional actors, and build broad-based national coalition for anti-corruption. In connection with the points raised above, experts stressed that anti-corruption cannot succeed with a mere technical fix, and shared how change is best achieved through collective action. Anti-corruption practitioners were advised to step out and engage with a broad range of stakeholders, including non-state actors such as the private sector, political parties, and civil society to maximize their unique spheres of influence and build a national coalition to tackle corruption. Transparency International (TI) Board Member Ms. Natalia Pangastoeti Soebagjo shared how her organization has worked with state-owned power companies in Indonesia to promote clean internal business practices, youth organizations to promote a more corruption-free future, the creative industry to produce films about integrity, street artists to create murals with clear anticorruption messages, as well as local governments and academia to promote the principles of better governance. She encouraged anti-corruption practitioners to be both creative and courageous when building coalitions and stimulating collective action, as the process can be extremely challenging yet can make a meaningful difference against corruption. Citizens Dr. Seongjun Kim from Korea s BAI shared the institution s experiences with participatory audit, whereby the BAI now takes citizen advice on its audit direction and formally receives petitions and audit requests from the citizens. While handling an increasing number of cases and meeting the public expectation are certainly challenging, he recommended that other countries consider taking this direction, noting that active citizen participation in auditing helps redress citizens grievances on public services and social development issues (e.g. permits and licensing, transportation, environment, re-development construction projects), improve public sector administration, and contribute to the maturing of participatory democracy. 15

17 Civil society The importance of a vibrant and empowered civil society was also emphasized by Mr. Sung-goo Kang, Senior Policy Member of Transparency International (TI) Korea. He first explained how Korea s enactment of the Anti-Corruption Act in 2002 was a result of many years of advocacy and concerted efforts by the civil society, including a public campaign to collect million signatures. At the same time, referring to the recent stagnation of Korea s scores on TI s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), he noted, Enactment of anti-corruption law and establishment of anti-corruption body is mandatory now in Korea. But if people don t have enough power to defend the accomplishments, and if the cultural foundation is not stable enough to keep the fruits, such outcomes can be easily lost. Ms. Soebagjo stressed the critical role of civil society actors as watchdogs or whistle-blowers in sustaining the national anti-corruption movement and giving strong domestic support to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the country s anti-corruption agency. She gave an account of how public campaigns, aimed at galvanizing Indonesian citizens to protect the KPK s integrity from politics, enabled the KPK to continue their mission and maintain their independence despite their political challenges. Private sector Ambassador Im from the Korean Chapter of the UN Global Compact stressed that the role of the private sector is critical as this is the supply side of corruption. He encouraged all countries to establish local chapters of the Global Compact, as a means to increase the strategic engagement with the private sector on governance issues including anti-corruption. Political parties UNDP s Governance Team Leader in Colombia, Ms. Blanca Cardona, informed the participants of UNDP s work with political parties and presented a newly developed transparency assessment tool for political parties to strengthen their accountability. Developed by the Country Office and Transparency International Colombia, the tool has been tested with Colombia s political parties, and the information gathered will be publicly available. On a similar subject, OECD s Policy Analyst, Dr. Yukihiko Hamada, also encouraged anticorruption experts to examine the issues of financing democracy, noting the close link between the financing of political parties and election campaigns with the agenda-setting and decisionmaking process. OECD is preparing a study of policies and practices in OECD Member States in this area. He called for particular attention to high-risk areas such as investment on public infrastructure and public procurement to seek specific solutions to mitigate the risks of policy capture. Based on OECD s research in this area, he identified several priority actions as policy options to be considered for promoting better public policies and averting policy capture. This included, for instance: balancing funding through direct and indirect public contributions to political parties, applying spending limits, limiting privileged access to state resources, requiring disclosures, promoting standards of professionalism, integrity and transparency in private donations, providing for dissuasive and enforceable sanctions, and support to political parties to help them comply with regulations. 5. Actively utilize various international mechanisms, new data sources, and technological tools to strengthen anti-corruption advocacy efforts at country-level. Partnerships beyond borders are critical, as international networks can act to empower nationallevel anti-corruption actors and enable the facilitation of anti-corruption knowledge sharing. The anti-corruption convention Mr. Shervin Majlessi from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) stressed that 16

18 the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which came into force in 2005 and now ratified by 174 countries around the world, should be more studied and utilized by anticorruption practitioners. While this young legal instrument is still being absorbed for countries daily anti-corruption work, the international norms and practices it creates, including its peer review mechanism, could add pressure towards action on corruption, helping to build countrylevel commitment and capacity to fight corruption. Practitioners were encouraged to see the convention not as an end in itself but rather as a comprehensive and action-oriented tool covering prevention, criminal law enforcement, international cooperation and asset recovery. Majlessi further explained that UNCAC could be used to address the issue of foreign bribery in particular through articles 16 and 46, which pertain to the criminalization of the bribery of foreign officials as well as mutual legal assistance for the investigation and prosecution of such cases. New and open data sources Participants also discussed various ways of using new data for anti-corruption advocacy, including TI s CPI. While countries should remain mindful that the CPI measures perceptions rather than actual incidences of corruption and should be used in conjunction with statistics on court cases and experience surveys, many have found this an effective tool to put the corruption issue on the table and to demonstrate to policy makers how much work there is still to be done. In addition, participants were encouraged to explore new data tools that are creating additional opportunities to enhance public access to information and to stimulate the public discourse on corruption. Global Integrity s Hazel Feigenblatt particularly spoke of a data explosion that has rendered information open and available for all members of society. She shared examples of such new sources of data on corruption. Anti-corruption practitioners were advised to explore the newly available tools and learn how to properly utilize and tailor them to meet their specific contexts and objectives. At the same time, participants noted that while having open data is important for improving transparency, it is necessary to ensure that this data be presented in an easily accessible and analytic format, in order for anti-corruption practitioners to make use of the relevant data. Electronic tools and traditional means Mr. Tae-Hag Roh from the Construction Management Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Government shared with participants how Seoul managed to tackle corruption in the public infrastructure projects through innovative use of e-governance tools and information technology in a sector that was once a haven for unseen corruption. Seoul s Clean Construction System consists of several mechanisms that limit the potential for corruption through an innovative use of the existing e-governance infrastructure and newly available IT tools. The Subcontractor Payment System automates payments in order to address the plight of late or unpaid wages of labourers, while the One-Project Manager Information System allows citizens and project stakeholders to access and monitor all the information on public infrastructure projects in real time. There is even an Allmi mobile application that allows citizens to access information on nearby construction sites. Noting how these systems have helped to enhance public access to information as well as the rights of labourers in Seoul, he recommended policy makers in other countries to consider introducing such systems, as appropriate, to their local contexts. He highlighted the strategic role of the local government in leveraging its position of influence in the public procurement and bringing all the relevant stakeholders on board. These concrete examples attracted much interest from international participants. Participants saw that these tools may help address their challenges and expressed interest in a having a catalogue of all the available tools and to promote in-depth technical discussions for the introduction and adaptation of these tools to respond to their specific local needs. 17

19 At the same time, it was pointed out by UNDP s Ethiopia Office Governance Advisor, Chrysantus Ayangafac, that conceptions of e-governance may take a different form in less developed countries and that some results could still be achieved also through traditional means. Initiatives such as posting school fund information on public billboards rather than online in countries with minimal Internet access can go a long way in improving citizen awareness of corruption issues. 6. Strengthen prevention as well as prosecution efforts against corruption Discussion at the 2015 Seoul Debates highlighted that prevention is just as important as prosecution when fighting corruption, and that anti-corruption strategies are most effective when both punishment and prevention aspects are well incorporated. Prevention and prosecution are inseparable in the real world Prof. Jin-Wook Choi from Korea University argued that although prevention and prosecution are distinct conceptually, they are inseparable in the real world. Prevention involves systematic scrutiny on the level of corruption by sector and by organization and causes of corruption, followed by remedial activities, while, punishment includes strong law enforcement to detect, prosecute and punish violations. Effective measures of prevention include reducing opportunities to engage in corruption by strengthening oversight and changing the mindset and behaviours of the public employees through a mix of deterrence and education approaches. Sharing Korea s experience, Dr. Joonghoon Park from KIPA examined this balance between prevention and prosecution. He recommended creating a single agency to deal with the interrelated functions of anti-corruption and promotion of ethics of public officials, rather than separating into different agencies. He also recommended introducing incentivised performance indicators on reducing incidents of corruption for public service managers as another practical step. Prof. Choi added that Korea s real-name registration laws in finance and real estate transactions have stifled the ease with which public officials could hide illegal assets. Prevention is also about assessment and sanctions Korean experts recommended that other countries explore assessment tools that fit their particular contexts, explaining that in Korean experience such assessment mechanisms has helped prevent actions that cause corruption by monitoring public officials behaviour and creating healthy competition among agencies to fight corruption by publishing comparative anticorruption performance indexes. If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it, was the opening quote (from the British physicist Lord Kelvin) of Mr. Sang-nyon Kim, Director of the Survey and Evaluation Division of Korea's ACRC. Based on Korea s experience, Director Kim sent a strong message that an accurate assessment of the corruption problem is necessary and extremely helpful for anti-corruption efforts. Director Kim presented Korea s Integrity Assessment System which, as mandated by the Korean law, serves to assess on an annual basis the level of corruption of each public service institution through surveys of service users and internal employees. In the 12th assessment in 2013, 240,000 persons were surveyed to assess 653 institutions. The assessments help measure the actual state of corruption in the institutions which may lead to sanctions and which helps the ACRC identify corruption-prone areas and take action to address them. Furthermore, the assessment system induces public pressure and institutional motivation by promoting competition among government agencies, as an index of integrity assessment results is being shared with the National Assembly and the public. This serves to guide public institutions in anti-corruption strategy development and reform actions and thereby helps the mainstreaming of anticorruption efforts across public institutions in Korea. 18

20 Success factors of the assessment include: the sanction-based approach, promotion of citizens participation and rights to information, as well as healthy competition among the public institutions being assessed. So far, the ACRC has shared the model with other countries including Indonesia, Bhutan, Mongolia, Thailand, Malaysia and Viet Nam, providing technical support and training for local implementation. At the 2015 Seoul Debates it garnered further interest from participants. Prosecution needs to be politically neutral and effective at the same time On the punishment side, Mr. Yun-Su Choi, Chief Officer of Anti-Corruption Planning in the Anti- Corruption Department of Korea s Supreme Prosecutors Office (SPO), stressed the role of deterrence and punishment in anti-corruption, in generating the social perception that crime does not pay. It was also underscored that prosecution agencies and agents need to maintain distance from politics to help ensure that prosecution is rational and politically neutral. Prosecutor Seung-mo Koo, also from the SPO, recommended that anti-corruption practitioners take measures to avoid perceptions of strong political bias as it may damage their reputation and trustworthiness in prosecution. In the case of Korea, corrupt politicians were previously commonly investigated only after power shifted to their opponents. He shared how the SPO s Central Investigation Department was decentralised to remove itself from political interference, because of the public perception of their investigation being politically charged. Yet this decentralization negatively affected the SPO s control tower ability to prosecute corruption cases, and the SPO is now working closely with its branches throughout the country, in close coordination with other institutions, for effective prosecution. The public support was also highlighted as important, as prosecutors are often faced with political stresses, as well as pressures from interest groups, particularly when dealing with grand corruption cases. 7. Generate political will for fighting corruption both from citizens bottom-up and from politicians top-down. Throughout the Seoul Debates, the importance of political will was reiterated. The question then led to how to generate and strengthen such political will. Participants emphasized that countries may need to undertake creative and multi-level efforts to generate the political will for anticorruption efforts. In particular Mr. Richard E. Messick, former Director of Law and Justice Group of the World Bank, highlighted the need of not just acknowledging the importance of political will, but actually acknowledging that it does not exist as a deus ex machina and that anticorruption practitioners should use the resources available to them cleverly to mobilize political will in the first place. The conclusion was that while the will of top political leaders to fight corruption is indispensable, the development of this will can also be facilitated through international cooperation, citizen demands and civil-society pressure. First, Mr. Messick highlighted the usefulness of using international networks with the example of Nigeria s Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, former head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. By first winning domestic public sentiment through fighting small-scale corruption that was harmless to the big fish, Ribadu was able to form international alliances with UK and US law enforcement agencies to enable him to go after the biggest fishes in Nigerian corruption. Second, it was also argued that even in the absence of strong political will for top-down anticorruption efforts, public sentiment can drive this agenda if citizens are well informed. Voters, the middle class, donors, corruption activists and officials can all contribute to moulding public opinion against corruption in a bottom-up approach. Given that politicians are necessary concerned about the views of citizens in order to be re-elected, civil society and members of the general public have opportunities to constantly pressure politicians to keep anti-corruption issues alive. 19

21 Here, several practitioners shared how giving citizens easily accessible, usable and relevant information on the delivery of their public services, and any abuse of them, can help mobilize them to demand their rights. For instance, Mr. Messick shared the case of a World Bank study on the allocation of school funds in Uganda, which drew attention to major leakages resulting in public outrage from Ugandan communities, and compelling the government to address corruption in the education sector. The study had such a big impact because the better informed parents and teachers were, the more likely their school would receive its allocated funds. This shows that starting with a development problem and working backwards can be one way to bring the public on board and demystify corruption. UNDP Uganda Head of Governance, Annett Mpabulungi-Wakabi, agreed with this sentiment, adding that with sufficient democratic space and civil society inclusion, communities can demand their right to universal education resources that are being provided by the government. Lastly, Mr. Sung-goo Kang from TI Korea highlighted the importance of not just mobilizing political will among citizens, but maintaining that political will over time. In his presentation he noted that although Korea has achieved significant results in the field of anti-corruption, according to TI indicators, Korea s progress has regressed after 2008 and then stagnated. The message was that anti-corruption practitioners should stay vigilant and work to empower people and continually construct a no tolerance culture in regards to corruption. It was stressed that anti-corruption practitioners need to take the fight against corruption to the heart of society, and carefully consider the underpinning integrity, cultures and values. 20

22 Meeting Notes & Session Summary 21

23 Opening Day (Day 1) Opening Speeches Welcoming the participants, Anne Marie Sloth Carlsen, Director of UNDP Seoul Policy Centre, appreciated the partnership of the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Anti- Corruption & Civil Rights Commission of Korea in organizing the 2015 Seoul Debates. She explained that the Seoul Debates is her centre s flagship platform for discussion on relevant issues of development policy, taking place on an annual basis. She acknowledged the technical support from UNDP Global Anti-Corruption Initiative, the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, and the UNDP Global Centre for Public Service Excellence in Singapore. In his congratulatory speech, H.E. Shin Dong-ik, Deputy Foreign Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs of Korea commended UNDP s efforts to share Korea s experience with other countries through the Seoul Debates. From our own experiences, we understand the twists and turns as well as the practical realities in fighting corruption, said in his congratulatory remarks. As such, we possess unique know-how and seasoned insights to share with developing countries, he added, mentioning that Korea wished to share the country s lessons learnt over the past 50 years with other countries. Minister Shin also underscored the high potential of USPC s DSP approach on anti-corruption. The Development Solution Partnerships are surely innovative and promising channels of the UNDP s growing teamwork with Korea. Beyond the Seoul Debates, I hope that they will multiply in number, leading to distinctive, concrete and sustainable results in developing countries with the support of the Korean Government, he noted. In the keynote speech, Ms. Kwak Jin-Young, Vice Chair of the Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission of Korea talked about her country s corruption during its rapid development over the past 50 years. Despite successful economic growth and democratization, corruption originated from out-dated customs and culture, which are deeply rooted in society as a whole, [and] emerged as one of the factors hindering the sustainable growth and development of Korean society, she said. She observed that corruption could hinder growth and sustainable development by distorting the distribution of limited government resources and put the lives and safety of people in danger in some extreme cases. In order to improve the effectiveness of anticorruption policy, she stressed that it is important to prevent corruption practices by determining environments and factors that cause corruption and addressing them in advance instead of detecting the cases afterwards. Ms. Kwak also shared how strong will from politicians and from across society had prompted the introduction and implementation of a wide variety of comprehensive corruption prevention policy measures such as Korea s innovative Integrity Assessments to evaluate corruption levels in public services, laws to protect whistle-blowers as well as a recent bills targeting nepotism and solicitation practices and fraud in public finances. Representing the UNDP, Mr. Haoliang Xu, Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Asia and Pacific stressed in his keynote speech that anti-corruption is a high priority of UNDP s work. He noted that fighting corruption was considered a concern above even health and education for citizens in Asia and the Pacific, with many voting for good governance as a priority of the post-2015 sustainable development goals in the UN s MyWorld 2015 online survey. He praised the 2015 Seoul Debates as a chance for experts to share knowledge and lessons learnt from their own countries and to identify strategic opportunities for building partnerships on anti-corruption. 22